A`udhu billahi min ash-shaytaan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
We were explaining in previous associations the different stations and we are coming now to the last station and that is their description. After we explained the different ones and last time we explained at-tawakkul, submit to Allah, reliance on Allah always, He knows than we know. There is no description like that even [comparison] Allah knows and we don’t know. So who knows better what is good for you? Allah or yourself?
Allah is the one that he put the blueprint for us. So that is why at-tawakkul is "to submit, to rely." You cannot go to the engineer and tell him put for me blueprint for a house or mosque or hospital or school and after he put the blueprint say no, I will put my own prints. The engineer knows how many iron bars to put inside, how much cement to put… We don’t know.
So with this little description of engineer, what about ourselves? Allah swt through His Beautiful Names and Attributes that we are dependent on Him, His Beautiful Names and Attributes that describe that, so He knows better what is good for us. So when we rely on Allah swt, we have to accept whatever consequences comes, so a Sufi or pious Muslim has to accept whatever consequences come as he has no doubt if something wrong will come. If anything wrong comes we must look at our mistakes.
Look at Ghazwat Uhud. For sure the believers were able to defend themselves and for sure they were able to destroy the army of idol-worshippers. But at the last moment they disobeyed the Prophet (s) because the Prophet (s) knows more. He told them, “Keep the mountain safe” and at the end they left the mountain and that is how they were defeated. So when we rely on Allah swt, even you see something you don’t like, but you don’t know how much later the outcome will be good for you and you don’t know what will be in Judgment Day for you due to that.
So the last step is ar-rida, satisfaction, to accept and not only to accept but to be happy with it. There are people who accept and they are not happy with what they accepted because they were forced. But awliyaullah they feel they were not forced they feel they ar following the right footsteps as Allah said in Qur'an
قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
Qul in kuntum tuhibboona Allaha fat-tabi`oonee yuhbibkumu Allahu wa yaghfir lakum dhunoobakum w’Allahu ghafoorun raheem.
Say: "If ye do love Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
So there is no confusion or doubts in their reliance in Allah. So they are whet? They are satisfied.
Grandshaykh used to say, “When is Allah satisfied from His servant? When His servant is satisfied from Him. That is why we say Allahuma anta maqsoodi wa ridaaka matloobee. You are my end goal and when You are my end goal, I want You to be satisfied with me.”
So rida is the genuine issue that we have to like.
Like for example Allah said, “Pray Fajr.” We are lazy. We, if someone tells you your flight is at Fajr time to fly to somewhere else. What you do? You put may be put 10 alarms in every room maybe one alarm in order that you be able to wake up on time and dress and then go to the airport.
Allah is saying to you “travel to Me” because in every prayer it is traveling to Allah. When you pray you are between the hands of Allah swt. The Prophet (s) said “the best time for me is when I pray,” as that is when he is between Hands of Allah swt. So that means we are not relying on what Allah ordered us to do we are not satisfied with what Allah wants for us. So Shaytan comes and says that don’t take wudu now, you will wake up. Or how to take wudu, I am happy under blanket and warm.
Some people don’t know what they are doing, they get up and pray without wudu even, in order not to get cold even or to wake up.
But it is up and down, we are not perfect. So only the Prophet (s) is perfect. So satisfaction is the last station to accept anything with happiness. Not to complain. And that is why he explained it as “ar-rida’u saroor al-qalb bi amri’l-qada, - to be satisfied in one’s heart with the order of Allah, with what is destiny” To be satisfied with the blueprint. Allah creates you different from him, him different from him, different from her. For everyone He created what is necessary for his or her contentment.
Now today people go to shopping mall and if someone will pick for them a suit or a clothes, they say, “I don’t like it.” They like what they pick for themselves. They don’t like what you pick for them. They cannot understand your mind as you think differently and he thinks differently.
Allah swt is the creator he knows for us what we like and so he has made blueprint for you, cannot fit someone else. That is why your face fits you, not him. And you cannot see two alike except twins. And everyone has a different face and appearance. And what Allah gave to him is to fit him. But we don’t like it. We try to think what fits us. We don’t think what Allah gave us is good for us.
That is why you see awliyaullah are happy with what Allah gave them. They don’t have nay complaint. They only have one complaint: ya Rabbee we love you, give us more. They don’t ask anything else. The happiness of the heart wit the decree of destiny. Whatever the destiny is they are accepting.
It means for the heart to be tranquil, sakoon al-qalb ila ahkaamillah - for the heart to submit in tranquility to Allah’s judgment. Not to anyone other’s judgment. They are seeing Allah’s judgment.
That is why ibn `Ajiba said, "knowledge is of two kinds:`ilm al-awraaq and `ilm al-adhwaaq – the knowledge of papers and the knowledge of tasting.” They are tasting Allah’s rida, and they are not reading.
For example the one judged to get Nobel Prize no one can describe his happiness. Only he can describe his happiness. The people around him are happy for him but they cannot feel his happiness. Because his happiness is huge, as he got the Nobel Prize, he is the Nobel Prize person.
Or in a competition the judge gives judgment that this one is the best. That person will begin to cry. That person is not expecting that. So awliya are not expecting. So the Absolute Judge and Judge of judges when he accepts that servant opens for him the door of his love, that Sufi person, that pious individual is flying from happiness. You cannot describe his happiness, he only can describe it for himself.
So when the description for rida, heart is in tranquility in accepting Allah’s judgment.
In whatever the are. that is why Bayazid said, “O Allah make my body so big it will fill all of hell and no space for anyone but me.” Because out of his love to Allah his satisfaction and contentment, in that station he knows Allah’s Judgment might be rough for someone so he says, “let me be that one.” [i.e. he will carry that person’s punishment]
So awliyaullah are on road to cultivate those crops. They might have rough time in dunya but due to their happiness they don’t feel it.
That is like someone under anesthesia in operating room. They are cutting him, cutting him… in the operating room but he cannot feel it at all. He is under taqdeer, under numbness. He is enjoying the numbness might be seeing dreams even. So when you are numbed in way of Allah then whatever roughness comes to you in dunya, you are not feeling it because the anesthesia is coming to you from the other side. People might see your life is rough but you are not feeling it; you are not feeling the roughness or rudeness of people but tolerating and satisfied. That is why awliyaullah they like, we go to parallel, there are parallel lines that awliya are moving, the stations and the ahwaal, the states in every station. Their states are different, they are in a trance so they don’t feel what is there. When you reach the level of rida, “yastawi `indak al-madh wa’dh-dham - to be given compliments or put down is the same.” If someone curses you or someone praises you it is the same, nothing you are happy.
The Prophet said, “the best time is when I am praying.” Why? Because he is between the Hands of Allah swt. So the pious person, if all his time he is between Allah’s Hands he is not concerned with what is happening.
That is why you see some saints, people don’t see them as saints because they are behaving like normal people, but in reality they are awliyaullah on the other side.
One time Grandshaykh used to tell that story, in the time of Abu Ahmad as-Sughuri, one of the Grandshaykhs of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, sending his mureed with a message for someone, in order for that mureed ot be uplifted and raised up. As he is a very forward mureed in submitting to Allah and His Prophet in everything that his shaykh is guiding him.
One day he sent him to the Qutb of his time. The shaykh said, "I am sending you to meet the Qutb.” That is because it is important for shaykhs to send the mureed to see the Qutb to get the reflection of their lights on them.
So he said where will find him. It was the old time of the czar of
When Allah gives He does not look at your picture, He looks at your heart. That person’s heart is always in Allah’s Presence. He is praying from within, though he does his five prayers and though he is working from within, he is with Allah. That is the Qutb. So he went and spent some hours with him and left.
So at that station you are happy with what Allah is demanding from you.
Imam Ghazali said that ar-rida satisfaction with what Allah has given us, “thamaran min thimaar al-mahabat - it is a fruit from the fruits of love.” Ridaa, that acceptance and to be satisfied as we described its outcome is from the love that is within you like burning fire.
Love to Allah is burning fire, it burns them inside. When you love someone you want to be with that one always is it not. So awliyaullah when their love becomes stronger they want always to be in divine presence and always there is a nearness you can never reach the maximum. As they become nearer that love beings to burn them more because at that time they want ot see, it burns them more. At that time they reach level of mushahadah, and though no one can see Allah they begin to see His signs and they begin to see His Oneness sign in everything. They see what you cannot see.
لاَّ يُحِبُّ اللّهُ الْجَهْرَ بِالسُّوَءِ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ إِلاَّ مَن ظُلِمَ وَكَانَ اللّهُ سَمِيعًا عَلِيمًا
La yuhibbu Allahu al-jahra bi’s-soo’i mina’ l-qawli illa man dhulima wa kana Allahu samee`an `aleema
Allah loveth not that evil should be noised abroad in public speech, except where injustice hath been done; for Allah is He who heareth and knoweth all things. An-Nisa [4:148]
That is why if someone comes and shouts at you, don’t say anything. It might be a test. Accept. Not in work - in work you have to defend your rights.
“Allah does not like anyone to expose something wrong unless has been oppressed.” Only if that person has done something wrong to them. In work you have the right but between the family and the house with wife and brother and children, with brothers in the same order, even if you have been shouted at, say “samahak-Allah - May Allah forgive you.” That is the best. Don’t answer and begin to create confusion - then you are not at level of tolerance and satisfaction.
وَجَزَاء سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا فَمَنْ عَفَا وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ
Wa jaza’u sayyiatin sayyiatun mithluha. faman `afa wa aslaha faajruhu `ala Allahi innahu la yuhibbu adh-dhalimeen.
The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah. for ((Allah)) loveth not those who do wrong. Ash-Shura [42:40]
Faman `afa wa aslaha fa –ajrahu ala Allah. You want reward from human beings or from Allah it is better to take from Allah; what am I going to take from human beings?
That is how awliyaullah prepare their followers that is why they keep mentioning these thing. We need tazkiyya. We know how to pray and to fast and pay charity and to do hajj. But these detail or good manners or moral excellence or discipline or we have to learn them, when we learn and begin to be good example of that then we begin to feel that love and see these visions and that journey begins to open up for you and open up for you.
So we said many times if you go to jungle at the beginning the jungle is open for you but as we go in there are lot more branches one over the other and there are more obstacles. But you keep going because you know you are entering the center of the jungle. Also the obstacles will come more and more as you go in the journey to your Lord. As you go, you begin to see “I am nothing.” At the beginning the level of mubtadi` we say we are in tariqah we are driving and coming. But as you go deeper and deeper you see it becoming more and more difficult. As you go more you see more obstacles and more tough as Allah wants to try your patience: Are you going to be patient or not?
I look at these people with computer with games. I heard it from Mawlana shaykh and with Grandshaykh that in the Last Days Allah swt will inspire the hearts of scientists to bring the maximum of technology and the maximum of hidden science to scientists for earth show the highest level of science, after that the last days comes.
Today we see the rising of technology, so huge. They do everything now. And he said, not like the beginning of the last century, 1900. He said, "The end of it that century, the end of twentieth century will be so huge for technology that Allah will order for the Prophet (s) and the Prophet (s) orders to Mahdi to bring all these secrets to hearts of scientists. After that will begin the Last Days.”
So we are seeing that after Grandshaykh passed, 34 years we are seeing the technology is so advanced; in so short time it is advancing. He said that 40 years ago and now we are seeing it today. Who said there will be Internet, cell phones, computers, SMS, text messages.
So that is his prediction.
So if you look at these people who are playing these games, as you enter it is easy and as you go further what happens? It becomes more difficult. What happens when you win something. You say “Yes!” That is culture thing. You only won a little bit of that game and then it goes further and further and then you lose.
That is only an example for seekers but in reality it is more difficult by thousands of times to do that. As you go further it is more difficult. But difficult with love is … so the rida is the fruit of love. It is a fruit that love gives to you. So when someone is into love of Allah and His Prophet. He doesn’t see anything as obstacle and he will continue to end. But the end never comes. As much as you are pious you will be pious and saint but as much as you advance there is one above you:
وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
Wa fawqa kulli dhi `ilmin `aleem - Above every knower there is a greater knower. Yusuf [12:76]
It keeps going up and up ascending in knowledge. That is why the fruit, rida is the fruit of love, wa huwa `alaa maqaamaat al-muqarabeen. That is highest level of closeness and highest of these levels. That is why we always ask Allah swt to resurrect us with those whom Allah honored and rewarded them to be from prophets and trustworthy and martyrs and saints, pious people. They are in highest level in maq`adi sidq. The highest level that can be reached. That is why for the pious person praising and humiliating is the same. He doesn’t get upset or angry or be scare that he will be thrown away if someone is humiliating him. That is enough. Next time we describe the different levels and states that you will be in these situation as you are improving.
Bi hurmatil Fatiha.